EE undergrad to Aero or Nuc grad?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hello y'all,</p>

<p>I'm a sophomore electrical engineering major at a state school in Ohio, and I am trying to get a sense of my options for the future. I've always been pretty unsure of what direction I want to take with engineering, but graduate school is something I have always been interested in. I was hoping people here could give me an input on my situation and maybe some ideas on how to prepare for the future. </p>

<p>My GPA is around 3.7. I am fairly involved on campus, being in a fraternity, an RA, and in IEEE. I don't have any research experience, but would really like to get some. I am taking a co-op with a large oil refining company this summer. I will be taking at least 2 more co-ops, and might try to work for NASA, Babcock&Wilcox, or something else more closely related to my grad school aspirations. </p>

<p>How common is it to see EE's in graduate programs for aerospace or nuclear (or similar specialized engineering fields)? Are there any specific classes I should try to add in addition to my undergrad (such as thermo or partial diff eq) or a particular focus I should try and take (like control systems, or something)? What does it take in terms of GPA and research to get into an elite engineering grad program, or even a mid-range one? My dream school would be U of Michigan, but I would also look at OSU, Illinois, Penn St, and others. Will my professional experience from co-ops make any sort of positive impact? I understand I need research experience, but how much exactly? On that note, how do you guys recommend getting involved in research at a university that isn't particularly research-focused?</p>

<p>Overall, how does my situation look in terms of the path to grad school? Am I already behind in the game?</p>

<p>Sorry that my thoughts and questions are a bit of a jumble, but I would appreciate anyone who could answer any of my questions or maybe throw in some of their thoughts on my goals!</p>

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<p>

It depends on what the lab group is doing. Groups working on fusion reactors often have both NucE’s and EE’s. Groups working on aircraft control systems or upper atmosphere physics often have both EE’s and Aero’s. For most other groups the intersection is so narrow that you are unlikely to see any crossovers.</p>

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Yes, but it is impossible to tell you WHICH classes until you actually choose a specialty. The only thing I can recommend in general is more math and statistics.</p>

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There is no magic number, just keep the GPA as high as you can manage and try to get in some quality research that results in or contributes to publication. In general, the closer that research is to the focus of your grad research group, the easier it is to get admitted.</p>

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Minimal.</p>

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Try for at least a year in one lab before applying to grad school (so start at least 3 semesters before graduating), and start early enough that you can switch labs if necessary.</p>

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REU’s are a basic step, talk to your professors, and (if all else fails) see if there are nearby schools that might be willing to work with you.</p>

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You look fine. Three big things - </p>

<p>First, research gets you grad school while interships get you a job. Pick one, because it is very hard to do both well.</p>

<p>Second, grad school is not about the title on the degree, it is about the specialization. You cannot pick, plan, or execute a grad program without knowing pretty well what you want to do, at least down to two or three specific areas. Get through your required courses, try out a lab position, then as you are actually picking electives you will specialize - thereby deciding for yourself where you can go to grad school.</p>

<p>Third, not even MIT is best at everything. Before you start picking grad schools, pick that specialty, then see who does it well.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the respondse cosimicfish, I appreciate it. Just a couple of things to comment on in turn. </p>

<p>With the co-ops versus research thing, I go to one of the few engineering schools in the country that make them mandatory. So I have to complete 3 over the course of my undergrad. I guess that makes it all a bit more difficult to fit in research, but it is something I will have to deal with however I can. I think this makes establishing research connections at my school pretty important. And to clarify my comment about not being research-oriented, I am sure there are plenty of research options available to me, but I definitely don’t have a research university to work with. I suppose that just implies a little more leg-work and searching on my part to get involved.</p>

<p>In response to the importance of picking a specialty, I can definitely understand where you are coming from, but this is not one of my strong suits. It took me damn long enough to figure out what branch of engineering I wanted to go into, I imagine I will need more experience and exposure to make the decision of a specialization. My indecisiveness kills me sometimes haha…</p>

<p>Another question, is there any sort of minimum cutoff for GPA, or range for grad school? Or is it really that research- and speciality- centric?</p>

<p>Thanks again for taking the time to help me out, I appreciate it!</p>

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<p>Not to overcrowd this thread with my own jumbled thoughts and questions, but can anyone tell me how undergrad research and graduate research impact each other? If I work in something like solid state devices, for instance, will this hold me back if I decide to go into graduate school in something entirely seperate like Aerospace control systems? Or is it the experience of research and the lab environment that really matter?</p>

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<p>

Grad school admissions are a little funny. There are usually two stages. </p>

<p>The first stage is a downselect where a secretary or junior professor shuffles through the applications and turns it into a pool of “acceptable” applicants. They might include some hard guidelines on GPA or GRE, or they might not, and regardless they don’t generally advertise what they are. Their real goal is to produce a pool of candidates big enough to have 2-3 solid candidates for every opening, so hard limits or not they keep winnowing down on superficials until they get to that magic number.</p>

<p>The second stage is the upselect. Every opening in a grad program is awarded at the discretion of an individual or small group. Most of these will be keyed to specific research groups, and they will be looking for someone to teach or research in that specific field. A small select group will be awarded fellowships and given the freedom to choose more freely, but no one will be admitted unless the committee thinks that there is at least 1 (and preferably 2-3) professors that are a good research match.</p>

<p>As to actual minimums, I was always told that for a top-5 program a 3.5 was a bare minimum, top-20 programs would need a 3.2, and any decent school will expect at least a 3.0, but even those are pretty soft - a few people with a 3.0 GPA and phenomenal research credentials will get into top schools, and many people with 3.7’s will be turned away.</p>

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Both. They want to see lab experience so that (a) they know that you have some idea what will be expected of you in that kind of environment and so that (b) one or more PhD researchers can observe you in that environment and write letters of recommendation detailing how they think you will do - LOR’s are extremely important. That having been said, while a similar undergrad research experience serves as strong preparation, grad programs know that many people change their research interests between programs, so switching is not a real problem unless they are splitting hairs. Provided, of course, that you are still otherwise qualified - if you spend your entire undergrad taking courses and doing research towards solid state devices, you might have trouble getting adequately prepared for a grad program in microwave antenna design.</p>